Beenz meenz job cuts

When you gotta go, you gotta go

Online loyalty Web currency outfit beenz.com has axed 25 jobs in the US and is looking for a further 18 volunteers in the UK.

There are now just 16 staff left in the US after workers there were given the boot last week. Following the redundancies in the UK, Beenz will still employ around 70 people.

However, the dotcom is also examining its operations in eight other countries and at this stage, no jobs are safe. It is either looking to streamline country operations or close marginal and non-strategic operations.

The job losses announced so far are part of a major re-engineering initiative at the Web-based currency. It appears that if Beenz is to survive, it has enter the offline world.

Charles Cohen, founder of Beenz, told The Register this morning: "Our customer base (other dotcoms) has been decimated over the last six months.

"We decided we needed to be very careful where we spent our money," he said.

That's why Beenz is restructuring its business - and looking for offline customers.

Cohen said he hoped to make some announcements concerning this in Q1 next year.

And Cohen assures us cash isn't a problem. In the summer it raised $39.5 million, he said. ®